Our final day trip in the North York Moors was Whitby – somewhere I’ve wanted to visit for ages.

We headed straight towards Whitby Abbey, thoroughly enjoying wandering through the seaside resort.  I loved the mix of traditional fish and chip shops and ice cream parlours, combined with cute boutiques and pretty craft shops.  I think I could have parted with quite a bit of cash if I’d explored at my pace, but the children wanted to keep climbing!  We were enjoyably delayed by the 100-year old harbour swing bridge moving into action, and watched several yachts glide by while we waited.

The final climb up to the Abbey was steep and dramatic – and of course, the kids sprung up it significantly quicker than we did!

When we finally reached the Abbey, it didn’t disappoint.  We were so very lucky with the bright blue skies making the shapes of the ruins all the more dramatic against the vivid colour.

With copious opportunities for climbing and scrambling, and two camera-confident children, we took loads of shots of them posing in the ruins!

Even Jo and I got in on the paparazzi action:

At one point, Sophie decided to strike against all the photo requests – collapsing to the ground and refusing to budge!

But we did manage to persuade her to pose for one more pic with us all on the promise of an ice cream later!

The Abbey was stunning and I would highly recommend it.  It was such a pleasure to be somewhere so hands on and interesting and the English Heritage visitors centre gave a real insight into live in the Abbey before the dissolution.  If you’re in the area, don’t miss it.

Our rumbling stomachs persuaded us to descend back into Whitby for some lunch, so we stopped for a quick sandwich before out next coastal experience – crabbing!

The kids have wanted to do this for ages, so we kitted ourselves out with line, bait and bucket in one of the many beach shops and joined many others on the harbour wall to have a go!

Turns out it’s pretty tricky – particularly when it’s several metres down to the water line.  So every time a crab grabbed onto our line, it very wisely let go of the line as we pulled it in!  But a kind fellow crabber donated a crab they’d successfully caught for our bucket so the children could have a good look!

All the failure made us all the more determined to catch one, but we tried for a good 30 minutes before admitting defeat and heading off for the ice cream we’d promised the kids earlier!

After lunch, it was time to explore the coastline, so we took a short boat ride on a replica of Captain James Cook’s Endeavour!  Here it is passing by later in the afternoon – so pretty!

And here’s the family enjoying the ride!

The views back to Whitby and the harbour were absolutely stunning, and the boat trip was worth it just for that (as well as the interesting tales of Cook’s life and voyages).

With the afternoon nearing a close, we had one final place to explore – the enormous beach!

Once more, it was really quiet giving the kids space to run wild and get completely drenched again.

We had an amazing day – it’s a great little town with so much to do.  Our three days in the North York Moors ended with me already wondering when we can get back to see more of it.

But on this trip, we had to keep moving North.  Next stop Middlesborough and Newcastle…